Eat right And Help The Environment!

As hard as it may be to believe, eating a healthier “diet” (lower in red meat and higher in plant based foods) is actually good for the environment. Aside from the fact that an eating plan lower in fat and higher in plant based foods is better for ones’ health, there can be an astonishing positive environmental impact on energy consumption as well as a significant reduction in ground and water pollution. This does mean that all people who have a healthier eating plan are tree huggers but it’s interesting to know that there are environmental positives. And it all starts with grain consumption.

Beef cattle are known as ruminants. That is to say that they eat grass and that their digestive system is evolved to digest grass easily. The problem lies in the feedlots where nearly all beef cattle go to be “fattened up” before sale. It is in these lots, consisting of tens of thousands of animals in many cases, where the menu consists of grain—not grass—and where grazing, in many cases, does not even exist. This “process” comes at an environmental cost in terms of energy and the pollution referred to above. For example, it has been calculated that it requires about 1,600 calories of energy (mostly in the form of fossil fuels to grow and produce the grain, to produce 100 calories of grain-fed beef (for grass fed “organic” beef the energy cost is much lower). By contrast, it takes about 500 calories to produce 100 calories of chicken. However, it takes only about 50 calories to produce 100 calories of plant based food such as grains and vegetables. In other words, if humans received the nutritional benefit of grains by direct consumption, they would be consuming far less fat, using far less energy, produce far less pollution and use significantly less water (over half of the fresh water consumed in the United States is used to produce and support beef cattle and the crops—mostly grains—that they eat).

Internationally, most grain is eaten by people and not animals. For example, food animals in most of the world consume about 2 out of 10 bushels of grain. In the United States, food animals consume about 6 of every 10 bushels of grain. This nutritional inefficiency comes with a higher cost in both money and a “diet” higher in fat and lower in many essential nutrients. And the fertilizers and pesticides used to produce additional grain consumption has, as noted, a deleterious effect on pollution. Indeed, runoff from most Midwestern farms has already found its way to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River and its many tributaries. Moreover, there are some sections of the gulf that are now considered “dead zones” where fish and aquatic life cannot survive. Similar problems are occurring in the Chesapeake Bay.

So consider a lower fat eating plan that includes higher consumption of plant based foods and you’ll be eating healthier and also making your own contribution to a less polluted environment. Who’d of thought!

I’m Dr. Paul Kennedy and that’s the “Be Fit, Stay Fit” Topic of the Week. Good luck with YOUR program. I KNOW you can do it!

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